SystemC Analog/Mixed-Signal User's Guide - User Perspective on IEEE Std. 1666.1-2016

This user’s guide is meant as an introductory guide for electronic system-level engineers and architects who would like to use the SystemC™ analog/mixed-signal (AMS) extensions for their system-level design and verification tasks. The main aim is to provide a self-learning guide on how to use the SystemC AMS extensions by explaining the modeling fundamentals and giving examples on how to start with AMS system-level design at higher levels of abstraction. It assumes that the user has some prior knowledge on SystemC modeling and simulation and C++ in general and is familiar with analog/mixed-signal design and modeling.

After going through this guide, the reader should be in a position to start using the SystemC AMS extensions, and should be able to:

- Get insight into the applicable use cases and requirements of the SystemC AMS extensions.

- Understand the introduced models of computation and associated execution semantics.

- Use the language constructs to create discrete-time and continuous-time models at different levels of abstraction.

- Combine SystemC and the AMS extensions to design a mixed-signal system.

- Perform time- and frequency-domain analysis and tracing of AMS signals.

The AMS design methodology, modeling style, and examples given in this user’s guide are based on IEEE Std. 1666™-2011, IEEE Std. 1666.1™ -2016 and the C++ programming language defined in ISO/IEC 14882:2003 4. Any simulator implementation compatible with this standard can be used to build and execute these examples.

This document is an informative guide, intended to clarify the usage and intended behavior of the SystemC AMS extensions. The precise and complete definition of the SystemC AMS extensions is standardized in IEEE Std. 1666.1™-2016.